One Bite at a Time

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Movies, Movies, Movies

It’s been a while since I last commented on movies, and, of
course, I’ve seen a few more than usual since then. This post got out of hand
in length, so I’m breaking it in half. I’m sure you’re heartbroken.

The Outfit. (1973)
Chosen by George Pelecanos during his night as Turner Classic Movies
programmer, the second film in which Robert Duvall received top billing. A
treatment of Richard Stark’s eponymous novel, Duvall plays the Parker
character—here named Earl Macklin—unapologetically straight, probably as close
to how Stark envisioned him as anyone has. (I need to see Point Blank again to be sure.) This has all the virtues of 70s
low-key filmmaking and few of the downsides. The excellent cast is character
actor heaven: Elisha Cook, Jr., Richard Jaeckel, Henry Jones, Jane Greer,
Sheree North, Robert Ryan, and Joe Don Baker were the ones I recognized. Karen
Black is the girl, and Joanna Cassidy makes her debut as Ryan’s girlfriend.
Pelecanos says this has been a hard film to get hold of, and he’s right: Netflix
doesn’t even have a listing for it. If you have a chance, don’t miss it.

Margin Call.
(2011) J.C. Chandor said that he wrote the script in just four days; it shows.
The story of how a venerable investment bank can unravel over a 24-hour period
when traditional controls are ignored, the film misses several bases by trying
to touch them all. It’s a shame, because a great story was there to be told,
had Chandor gone for something more along the lines of the excellent Too Big To Fail, told from the bank’s
side. An excellent cast—including Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons,
Zachary Quinto, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci—gives their best
efforts, but there’s no there there.

Saving Private Ryan,
(1998) Re-watched it on June 6, the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy
landings. Loosely based on the true story of the Niland brothers. I learned all
I cared to know about what it must be like to be in a war in the first 25
minutes. The battle scenes—especially the opening on Omaha Beach and the bridge
at Ramelle—are graphic and as intense as anything ever filmed. Difficult to
watch, even when you know what’s coming, and I can’t do it very often. Still,
I’ll do it again. Congress should be required to watch it before voting to send
troops into harm’s way.

Monte Walsh,
(1970) Another of Pelecanos’s picks, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Jeanne
Moreau star in an “end of the old west” story that evokes the viewer’s empathy
without creating melodrama. Another of those borderline minimalists 70s movies,
Lee Marvin’s title character is sad for what he’s lost and is losing, but never
feels sorry for himself. The scene of Marvin breaking a horse in the main
street and destroying the town to do it is worth watching the entire movie for,
but watch the whole thing. One of my favorite Marvin performances.

Pitch Black,
(2000) The original Riddick movie, predating Chronicles. They should have made it more about him. Vin Diesel
hits the right pitch in this Aliens
knock-off about a space ship that crash lands on a planet with three suns,
treading a line between the John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage characters in Con Air. There’s an eclipse every 22
years, casting the entire planet into darkness (they actually show how this
would work pretty well), and they’re unlucky enough to land there just as it’s
getting dark, which is when horrible creature that cannot bear light come out
and eat every living thing, including, apparently, each other. The usual chase
scenes, dumb choices, and bad consequences result. Could have been a lot
better.

The Terminator.
(1984) Happened to be the next movie on HDNet after Pitch Black, and I couldn’t resist. (I never can.) Say what you
want about him, but the Terminator and Arnold Schwarzenegger is as perfect a
matching of actor and role as Larry Hagman and JR Ewing or Ian MacShane and Al
Swearengen. James Cameron made three of the greatest action movies of all time
(The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2:
Judgment Day) and will be remembered for that crappy thing he did about the
boat and the ice cube.

2 comments:

Turner Classic Movies made George Pelecanos the guest programmer an evening a few months ago. May, I think. He picked THE OUTFIT, THE SEVEN-UPS, MONTE WALSH, and RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY as his four movies for the evening. He mentioned when chatting with Robert Osborne how difficult it was to get a copy of THE OUTFIT, but didn't say why, or how TCM got a hold of it.

Interesting thing about his four choices: THE SEVEN-UPS was the one I most wanted to see, but figured what the hell, and recorded them all. by the time I'd seen them all, THE SEVEN-UPS was the one I enjoyed least, not that it wasn't good. (Maybe the best car chase ever.)

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About Me

Two of my Nick Forte Private investigator novels (A SMALL SACRIFICE and THE MAN IN THE WINDOW) received nominations for Shamus Awards. I also write a series of police procedurals set in the economically depressed town of Penns River PA, published by Down & Out Books. A non-fiction essay, “Chandler’s Heroes,” appeared in Spinetingler Magazine online in October of 2013.
I live in Laurel MD with The Beloved Spouse.